Ellen Tamm
Ellen Tamm was an art director with the advertising agency Rives, Smith, Baldwin and Carlberg (now Richards/Carlberg) in the early 80's. I worked with her at least one time on a shoot for M. W. Kellogg in May of 1981. Less than eight months later she was dead. She was murdered by the infamous serial killer Coral Eugene Watts, reported to have died in prison yesterday, closing the final chapter on this sad and senseless tale.
Ellen's death was first ruled a suicide. She was found hanging from a tree in the Montrose area of Houston on a cold January morning in 1982. She was an avid jogger, logging three miles each day. On a cold morning she would wrap her head with a tube top to keep her face and ears warm. It was this tube top that acted as a noose, suspending her from the small tree. The police seemed to think that she might have hanged herself.
Those of us who knew Ellen thought this suicide ruling was ridiculous. Both her parents and other relatives came to her defense and implored the Houston Police Department to investigate further. This was to no avail and the suicide ruling remained official until the truth came out when Watts confessed later that year to killing Ellen and eleven other women in Texas (11) and Michigan (1).
You can read more about this case and the many others connected to Watts here:
http://www.officialcoldcaseinvestigations.com/showthread.php?p=9618
In the years following Ellen's death the Art Directors Club of Houston (ADCH) created a special scholarship for students naming it the Ellen Tamm Memorial Scholarship. Ellen was a former board of director of the organization whose members work in the fields of advertising, design, illustration, photography and multimedia. For many years the scholarship awarded an internship for a deserving student at one of Houston's advertising agencies or design firms. The scholarship has been discontinued but the ADCH still maintains the Ellen Tamm Memorial Fund to provide other programs for students. In her remembrance the ADCH renamed its annual student show of advertising, design, illustration, photography and multimedia the Ellen Tamm Student Show.
Ellen's death was first ruled a suicide. She was found hanging from a tree in the Montrose area of Houston on a cold January morning in 1982. She was an avid jogger, logging three miles each day. On a cold morning she would wrap her head with a tube top to keep her face and ears warm. It was this tube top that acted as a noose, suspending her from the small tree. The police seemed to think that she might have hanged herself.
Those of us who knew Ellen thought this suicide ruling was ridiculous. Both her parents and other relatives came to her defense and implored the Houston Police Department to investigate further. This was to no avail and the suicide ruling remained official until the truth came out when Watts confessed later that year to killing Ellen and eleven other women in Texas (11) and Michigan (1).
You can read more about this case and the many others connected to Watts here:
http://www.officialcoldcaseinvestigations.com/showthread.php?p=9618
In the years following Ellen's death the Art Directors Club of Houston (ADCH) created a special scholarship for students naming it the Ellen Tamm Memorial Scholarship. Ellen was a former board of director of the organization whose members work in the fields of advertising, design, illustration, photography and multimedia. For many years the scholarship awarded an internship for a deserving student at one of Houston's advertising agencies or design firms. The scholarship has been discontinued but the ADCH still maintains the Ellen Tamm Memorial Fund to provide other programs for students. In her remembrance the ADCH renamed its annual student show of advertising, design, illustration, photography and multimedia the Ellen Tamm Student Show.
Labels: ADCH, Art Director, Baldwin, Carlberg, Coral Eugene Watts, Ellen Tamm, murder, Rives, Smith
posted by Ron Scott, Photographer at 1:24 PM
3 Comments:
I knew Ellen Tamm very well, she and i dated during the late 70's and early 80's. I saw a program last evening about her killer and i never knew his name. I had heard from friends in Houston after she was murdered that she was brutally killed but I never knew her killer's name. Ellen was such a very nice girl, I think that she loved me or at least liked me very much and had I not been so screwed up at the time, i would have realized how much she did like me. We met in Houston and dated for a fair amount of time. When i was in Israel working, she came to visit me when she was there on vacation. When Ellen was in Los Angles, she met me and stayed with me at my hotel...She just wanted to be loved and she was a very nice woman. I miss her and i wish that i could tell her how much i know now that she cared for me at the time. I was so crushed when i heard about her untimely death, she was such a nice girl........
I knew Ellen Tamm as we were classmates in the 5th and 6th grades at Grahamwood Elementary School in Memphis, TN (1963-1965). In fact, my desk in grade 6 was just in front of hers, so we had lots of opportunities to talk and did so, to the sometimes disdain of our very strict teacher, Miss Marie Henderson. There were many things that I liked about Ellen, certainly they incuded her genuineness, sincerity, deep intellect, strength of personality and passion and commitment to art. She also took an interest in me and was a very good friend. I wish that I had known her even better, longer, and had gotten to know her family. I recall that her parents owned an upscale lighting supply company, "Lighting Incorporated". Oh yes, another thing. Ellen was Jewish-we had a few people who were Jewish in our classes, but not many (remember, it was Memphis, not New York or Philly). So I really was drawn to something about her "Jewishness". (My wife and daughter are Jewish).
After the time at Grahamwood, I attended high school in another part of the city and had no further contact with Ellen, or knowledge of her whereabouts until....... running across a composite of 5th grade school photos that had been shared a number of years ago by another classmate, I googled her name expecting to find her somewhere very successfully living in the art world.
Not sure that I can put into words that really express the level of shock, horror and saddness that I felt as this tragic story unfolded.
I am very thankful for the wonderful memories I have of this beautiful person. I hope that she, her family, and friends who loved her, and continue to love her, have found peace.
Phillip F Chance MD
Seattle, Washington
I knew Ellen, we were friends for years. Starting in the 10th grade, we were a couple, off and on for probably 4 years. We met at White Station high school in Memphis..I was in the chorus of South Pacific, our high school musical, and she being with the Art Dept. was working on sets. This was prior to her father's death, he died at home of cancer. Ellen herself was a cancer surviver.
As i had lost my father due to divorce..she and I bonded in some strange way. Best of friends, Puppy love, ..It was a wonderful time that I cherish to this day. I flew to Brooklyn, NY to visit with her, her freshman year of collage at Pratt Institute. The next year I visited her on the opposite coast as she attend UCSB..i loved Stanta Barbara.
Long distant relationships weaken but our friendship never did. She designed the logo for my band in Memphis...Legacy I still have the business card. Her Sister Laurie dated the lead guitar player. I was on the road touring when I heard of her death. I still think of her to this day. and today another "Tragedy in Texas" with the shooter at Fort Hood, had me google her name again... and I found your blog and another of her friends ...Thanks I'm glad I'm not alone in my thoughts of her
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